Though he’s now a successful dentist with his own practice in Santa Ynez, Dwayne Elder still dreams about pitching. Literally.
A former college hurler at the University of Utah, Elder later pitched for an independent minor league baseball club. Even at 52, he’s never lost the desire to play.
In one way, Elder continues living his baseball fantasies, as a manager and player for the Santa Ynez Sox, one of three Santa Ynez Valley teams, along with the Bandits and Mudhounds, in the Santa Barbara Men’s Adult Baseball League.
The 10-team league falls under the umbrella of the Men’s Adult Baseball League (MABL), a national organization with 325 local affiliates and more than 3,200 teams. It accepts players 18 and older, with varying degrees of experience from minor leagues to Little League.
“Most guys that have played a lot of organized baseball, by the time they’re done, they’ve had enough,” Elder said. “The league is more for guys that never really achieved that highest level, but still get to play.”
This season, the league split into two divisions—one for younger adults and one for players ages 35 and older; the Sox belong to the latter. Each over-35 team can have two players on the roster younger than 30, so the Sox range in age from 26-year-old Kyle Sousa, a former closer at Cuesta College, to battery mate Al Hire, a 65-year-old catcher. There are also a few fathers with sons on the team.
The Sox, struggling at 3-4 this season, match up against teams from the valley, Santa Barbara and Goleta, playing every Sunday at Santa Ynez High School. Occasionally the Sox will cross over and play the younger division, but the games don’t count in the standings.
“They can smoke us pretty good,” Elder said. “Some guys throw as fast as 90, and when you’re 52, I get in there, and that pitch is by me before I’ve got a shot at it.”
Though games against his peers are highly competitive, Elder said, he gets most of his enjoyment from the fellowship with teammates and fulfilling his love for the game.
“It’s not life and death; we all have lives and jobs,” he explained. “I’m sure the younger division’s a little more intense. They have a little bit more testosterone, but the old guys like us, we chuckle and have a great time.”
Elder’s teammate Harry Poor is the only player left from the league’s inaugural season in 1990. Poor played in college, too, and later semipro ball for Bakersfield and the San Luis Obispo Blues. He found out about the league through a chance meeting with league founder Mark Bartholomew, and was drafted by the league’s original team, the Santa Barbara Phillies.
“When we first started the league, most of us hadn’t played ball in a number of years,” Poor recalled. “But now the league is full of other players that come out of high school or college.”
After a few seasons with the Phillies, later renamed the Rangers, Poor moved on to the Sox. Lompoc pharmacist Buck Sharp had decided to field the team at Santa Ynez High School, and Poor, now 60, has played with them ever since.
“I have to thank my family,” he said. “For 20 years they’ve watched me leave every Sunday to go play ball for four hours. My daughter was a little girl who came to watch me play; now that little girl’s husband is on one of the teams I play against. So I get to see my daughter and two grandchildren come out and watch Grandpa still play baseball. I’ll be humble, but to be honest with you, I’m still pretty good.”
After his baseball career ended due to an injury, Poor said he tried filling the gap with softball, but it wasn’t the same. In the MABL though, he’s found a worthy substitute.
“This league gives you the opportunity to come out and play,” he said. “It’s not like slow pitch, where you can have six beers and hit the ball. You have to work at it, but if you’re willing to put in the time, it’s a perfect place for somebody who loves to play baseball.”
Besides rules against players breaking up double plays or taking out catchers at the plate, contests are traditional nine-inning baseball with wood bats. Though the game’s a bit slower, it’s all relative, Poor explained. Above all else, he’s stuck around for the camaraderie with both his teammates and opponents.
“We all appreciate each other’s skills and we stay together,” he said. “It’s having that group of guys, where if you don’t quite make that diving stop, they still appreciate the effort. It makes a big difference.”
In addition to the regular season, playoffs, and league championship, the Sox compete in tournaments in Palm Springs and Las Vegas during the year. For the players, the highlight of every season comes in October with the MABL World Series in Phoenix, where teams play in the same spring training facilities as the pros. In 2010, the Sox won the national title in the league’s 50-and-older division, beating out a field of 32 teams, many of them from large metropolitan areas.
“We played nine games in six days,” Elder recalled. “All nine-inning games for a week straight. That’s the tournament we always aim for. That’s the thrill for us.”
Besides Santa Barbara, there’s a similar MABL league in San Luis Obispo. Santa Maria used to have one, but it’s no longer active. Poor said the biggest challenge facing his league—more than two decades strong—is keeping fields available at a reasonable cost and getting younger players to respect the privilege of having a place to continue playing the game.
“Every once in a while, some of the younger guys think the Dodgers are going to come up and draft them,” he said. “But after they’ve been in the league a while, they realize it’s just good competitive baseball. It’s not your livelihood.”
Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas is the Roy Hobbs of journalism. Contact him at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 14-21, 2012.